São Paulo – Brazilian handicraft has gained strength with the release of the Brazilian Handicraft Export Association (Abexa) to promote the Brazilian product abroad. With this objective in mind, the association established, on Thursday (9), an agreement with the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil) for investment of 8 million Brazilian reals (US$ 4.7 million) in promotion activities.
"The new association should bring Brazilian handicraft together in a more structured form, optimising resources and boosting exports," said the Apex business director, Maurício Borges. According to him, sector exports currently total US$ 2.7 million and with the agreement the target is to export US$ 3.9 million next year.
Abexa initially includes Artest, from Paraná, which includes artisans from the South, Fazer Brasil, from São Paulo, Centro Cape, from Minas Gerais, which also includes artisans from the southeast, and Instituto Cearense de Artesanato (ICA), from Ceará, which operates in the Northeast. The idea is to bring together 1,500 exporters in 2011.
According to Borges, with the creation of the Abexa, all artisans are going to win, as there will be better organisation of offer and demand when the association participates in international events, for example. "A Brazilian pavilion with artisans from several states is stronger than several separate stands," he said.
To strengthen handicraft abroad, Abexa, in partnership with the Apex, should promote participation in international fairs, delegations, buyer and image projects, which bring journalists from other countries to Brazil.
The managing director at Abesa, Tânia Machado, pointed out, in a press statement disclosed by the Apex, that artisans who export have 20% greater revenues than those who do not, and employ 20% more labour, according to figures presented in a Vox Populi research. Currently, there are in the country around 8.5 million artisans, with joint revenues of over 50 billion Brazilian reals (US$ 29 billion).
According to Borges, the target for promotion of Brazilian handicraft are the nations to which products are already exported, like Germany, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and the United States. "We are going to start by the nations in which companies already have experience, and then we will head to new markets," she said.
For 2011, one of the actions forecasted is the establishment of a travelling handicraft shop, to travel Europe and the United States. Another objective is participation in fair Maison Object, in France, Environment and Tendencies, in Germany, Bijoutex and Intergift, in Spain, as well as the Las Vegas Show and Gift Fair, in the United States.
*Translated by Mark Ament
